Tricks in Progress

[chewie2009]

Originally Posted by hbrown0923

Just a quick question, might be common sense but how do you teach a dog to sit pretty and dance? I just didn't know if there were any tips on which one first or how to go about it since there is a difference in the two tricks but not a huge difference. Sorry if this question has been asked before. Thanks in advance!

Sitting pretty is like a crouch. They sit on their bum with their legs as support.

Dancing means that they usually go up and stand on hind legs and either hop or spin.

Sitting pretty is tougher for smaller dogs with weaker muscles which are required for balance.. i had to train mine the same way but had to ensure the dog held that position for a longer period of time to develop balance and muscle memory.

[Britster]

Originally Posted by chewie2009

Yeah.. i like that Zakgeorge21 guy on YouTube.. he has AWESOME tricks.. i suggest you look up KIKOPUP as well. I taught my Morkie to jump in my gym bag and crate training from her.. lol..

I have tried the limp, but Yorkies and Morkies have such short legs, it takes forever to get them to travel. I just started loose leash walking by strapping the booger to me and walking around the house with treats.

Nothing beats real meat.. i use lean roast pork, and chicken. Gets my dogs attention all the time.

You may want to teach your dog to play dead when you say, "bang".. i have taught mine to do so.

Hey, yep, I'm subscribed to kikopup as well. She's excellent! Jackson knows almost 20 tricks now including bang bang. He learned that at 5 months old, it's one of his favorite tricks! Here's a list of all his tricks (I think!): sit, down, stay, come, crawl, spin, spin the other way, dance, roll over, bang bang you're dead, limp, shake, sit pretty, high-five, ten-five, take off my socks, catch (a toy or object in his mouth), around & under (our version of weaving through my legs staying still), and take a bow (he did it consistently for the first time the other day, yay!). OK, I THINK that's all. I really want to teach him "say your prayers." That's too cute. I'd love to see a video of your pup doing tricks! I agree on the real meat - Jackson works HARD for chicken.

[chewie2009]

How did you train your puppy to do the following:

- Crawl ( i am assuming on the belly? )
- Limp ( i am trying but he takes such small steps..lol)
- catch thrown objects ( is this in midair? How do you get them to catch like that?

Thanks, and have fun!

[capt_noonie]

Crawl is very easy. have your pup in a lay down position. Now with the treat on the ground in front, slowly pull away and say crawl. It helps to put your free hand a few inches about the butt so if they start to stand up and feel you hand they will plot that booty back down and crawl forward for the treat.

Now since Uni learned bow, she now sometimes crawls in a bow position, so I have to retrain her to do a proper crawl

Catch, I will try to get my youtube vid on here. I first tried with a small soft plush toy. I would have her sit and say catch it right as I tossed in at her face. See the importance of a soft toy? LOL She quickly learned that if she didn't want to get hit in the face she would catch it. Don't worry guys, it didn't hurt her at all.

Limp, cannot for the life of me get her to do it. Well I've only tried twice so maybe I should keep trying.

[Britster]

Originally Posted by chewie2009

How did you train your puppy to do the following:

- Crawl ( i am assuming on the belly? )
- Limp ( i am trying but he takes such small steps..lol)
- catch thrown objects ( is this in midair? How do you get them to catch like that?

Thanks, and have fun!

Crawl, I put him in a down position and lured him with a treat. After about 2 minutes, he was understanding what I wanted and 10 minutes later, he knew crawl. This was one of the easier tricks.

Here's a good video:

YouTube - Clicker train your dog to crawl

To teach limp, I did exactly as the first video I posted of Zak George. It took Jackson 3 days. This one:

YouTube - How To Teach Your Dog to Limp

Catch has been hard for Jackson and he's still not 100% consistent. His eye coordination is apparently not that great, LOL. I would have him focus on me and hold the toy up so he was staring at it, then I'd throw it (I started at a very short distance) and whenever he caught it in his mouth or even tried to catch it, I'd say "Catch! yes!" We didn't really use treats for this one, it was like a game.

[hbrown0923]

During this video he says not to use treats from the store, to use real food...will that help? We have been tearing apart store bought treats but if this will help maybe we will try it.

[katy-yorkie]

Buster learned to "crawl" on Saturday. I can't get Maggie to do "down" no matter what I do. She will walk away when I start trying to teach that one to her. She will try everything else but she won't try that one. Buster is a quick learner and will do almost anything for the treat but Maggie will walk away.

Capt Noonie, I have seen Uni's video of tricks. Very impressive. Uni is very good! I can't get either of mine to do roll over.

I have not been working with them for a while but now I want to get back into it. Buster seems easier to teach and he picks up things very quick, do you think it's because I had a trainer for him when he was younger? Anyway, I am back to teaching tricks. Wish me luck!

[Britster]

Originally Posted by katy-yorkie

I have not been working with them for a while but now I want to get back into it. Buster seems easier to teach and he picks up things very quick, do you think it's because I had a trainer for him when he was younger? Anyway, I am back to teaching tricks. Wish me luck!

Possibly! I have heard that males are also a lot more willing to please than females sometimes but obviously it depends totally on the dog.

And yay on Buster learning crawl! It's such a cute trick.

Hm, I don't have much advice on "down" as Jackson learned that one fairly quickly and I honestly don't even remember how I taught it. I think I kind of just guiding him into a laying position with a treat.


So, I'm thinking since Jackson's on no activity for a week with a hurt leg... how in the world do you teach speak? I can't get Jackson to do it on cue.

[nneessaa]

I tried to get Scruffs to "speak" but failed. He rarely ever barks except maybe once every 10 times the doorbell rings if all the other dogs I'm pet sitting bark. I guess I'm lucky, but if I try to get him riled up so he barks he just looks at me like I'm retarded.. I decided it was one trick we could live without, after all I don't want to teach him to bark haha!!

[capt_noonie]

Originally Posted by katy-yorkie

Buster learned to "crawl" on Saturday. I can't get Maggie to do "down" no matter what I do. She will walk away when I start trying to teach that one to her. She will try everything else but she won't try that one. Buster is a quick learner and will do almost anything for the treat but Maggie will walk away.

Capt Noonie, I have seen Uni's video of tricks. Very impressive. Uni is very good! I can't get either of mine to do roll over.

I have not been working with them for a while but now I want to get back into it. Buster seems easier to teach and he picks up things very quick, do you think it's because I had a trainer for him when he was younger? Anyway, I am back to teaching tricks. Wish me luck!

Thanks! We worked with Uni every day at each mealtime since she was 3 or 4 months old, so it was a lot of work! Here's a vid of her when my bf taught her rollover. He stayed home from work to teach her this, LOL. She learned it in the one day, but didn't perfect it for quite a few weeks. Have them follow your hand going over the shoulder and help them roll over.

YouTube- Smartest 4 mo old yorkie knows right...

For "down", I am guessing Maggie is a tiny? Most tinies when you ask them down, and put the treat on the floor, that is like 2" under their chin, so they're like "what?" and just look down. Put her up on a chair or stool, that way she won't be able to walk away. Now the floor is much farther away. Say down and put the treat BELOW seat level. They will have to lay all the way down to get closer to the treat.

Good luck!

[capt_noonie]

Originally Posted by nneessaa

I tried to get Scruffs to "speak" but failed. He rarely ever barks except maybe once every 10 times the doorbell rings if all the other dogs I'm pet sitting bark. I guess I'm lucky, but if I try to get him riled up so he barks he just looks at me like I'm retarded.. I decided it was one trick we could live without, after all I don't want to teach him to bark haha!!

For speak, all we did was hold a treat in one hand and with the other hold out you're gonna high five someone and we said speak but in a deep barky voice. Uni got it really fast. If they are hyped up and want the treat they will bark. We even taught this to my BIL's bull terrier, who even though is very friendly is dumber than rocks. That's the ONLY trick he knows. SOMETIMES he will sit.

After she got speak, then she felt like she could bark whenever the heck she wanted, so we would say no or quiet and hold out a finger and point at her and squint our eyes, like we were mad. She would growl out of frustration b/c she wanted to bark. Then we would say good growl. that one took a long time to perfect.

[Britster]

Originally Posted by capt_noonie

Thanks! We worked with Uni every day at each mealtime since she was 3 or 4 months old, so it was a lot of work! Here's a vid of her when my bf taught her rollover. He stayed home from work to teach her this, LOL. She learned it in the one day, but didn't perfect it for quite a few weeks. Have them follow your hand going over the shoulder and help them roll over.

YouTube- Smartest 4 mo old yorkie knows right hand from left! tricks!

For "down", I am guessing Maggie is a tiny? Most tinies when you ask them down, and put the treat on the floor, that is like 2" under their chin, so they're like "what?" and just look down. Put her up on a chair or stool, that way she won't be able to walk away. Now the floor is much farther away. Say down and put the treat BELOW seat level. They will have to lay all the way down to get closer to the treat.

Good luck!

OMG, look at her!!! LOL. Sooo cute! I don't think Jackson was ever that small, ha! How much did she weigh there? When I got Jackson at 9 weeks old, he was already almost 5lbs.

YouTube - Jackson's Tricks @ 5 months old

(sorry it's kinda repetitive lol, I was proud, he had just learned "bang")

[capt_noonie]

Oh wow, look at him go!

I don't remember how big she was when we first got her, but she was small enough to barely balance in one of my bf's hands. I just looked at her vet papers at 6 mo and she was 3 lbs, so at 4 months I guess about 2.5?

[nneessaa]

Oh my goodness he is so adorable! I love how he just flops over. I can't wait for soccer season to be over so Scruffs and I can start agility again. We don't have the time now.

[Britster]

Originally Posted by capt_noonie

Oh wow, look at him go!

I don't remember how big she was when we first got her, but she was small enough to barely balance in one of my bf's hands. I just looked at her vet papers at 6 mo and she was 3 lbs, so at 4 months I guess about 2.5?

So cute, she looks so little in that vid, hehe. I love when she does the crawl. It took Jackson longer to perfect the roll over too as you can see from the video, he kinda halfasses it lol.

Originally Posted by nneessaa

Oh my goodness he is so adorable! I love how he just flops over. I can't wait for soccer season to be over so Scruffs and I can start agility again. We don't have the time now.

Hehe thanks. I need to see Scruffs in action doing some agility whenever you get into it again! I can't wait to test out our new agility stuff once Jackson feels better.